Katanning expecting to be Great Southern NBN 'hub'

Thu 6 Feb 2014, 2:55 PM AEDT

The Katanning Shire says it still expects to be the first area in Western Australia's Great Southern to have fixed line access to the National Broadband Network (NBN), despite earlier work being carried out in Narrogin.

The Federal Government has announced the work in the region will start in Narrogin with the installation of a wireless tower.

Both Narrogin and Katanning are expected to have wireless access within 12 months.

Katanning Shire chief executive Dean Taylor says authorities have told the shire, Katanning will still be the region's NBN "hub".

"We have all the infrastructure in Katanning to be able to service the Goldfields, down to Esperance and the south-west, so it makes absolute common sense that the NBN connection will come through Katanning and that's basically what the NBN have told us," he said.

"In Narrogin they didn't have such a tower, so they're actually starting to build the tower so that when NBN wireless does come they'll have the tower in place. We'll already have the tower."